The present invention generally relates to websites, and more particularly, to a method and system for displaying an overview of the webpages and related information residing in a website.
Existing websites on the Internet generally do not provide an overview of the structure of the websites. As a result, users must search for desired information in a website by either using the search facilities provided by the website or by manually searching through the individual webpages in the websites. Often, users have to sequentially bring up several webpages in a website in order to follow the internal links of the website to a desired webpage residing in the website.
Although some website home pages present information in an easily accessible and structured fashion, the specific presentation methods vary widely from website to website without any consistency, and thus, leave users uncertain as to what types of information the websites generally maintain. Even when a user knows in advance that a website contains certain types of information, the website may not present to the user a road map on how to directly access that information from a given webpage in the website, and thus, requiring the user to search through the entire website.
Searching through a website, however, can be time consuming. To display a webpage, a web browser program running on, for example, a personal computer must first download from a website a set instructions for displaying a webpage. These instructions, which are typically in a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format, are stored in the website in a separate file, which is referred to as an HTML file. The web browser parses the HTML file, which typically includes 1 to 2 kilobytes of information, and identifies the multimedia elements, for example Java Applets, graphic files, audio files, or movie files, referenced in the HTML file. The web browser then downloads the identified multimedia elements, each of which typically includes 100 to 2000 kilobytes of information. Based on the downloaded multimedia elements and the HTML file, the web browser program can then display the webpage. Because of the large size of the multimedia elements, the downloading process can take significant amount of time, especially when a user has to bring up several webpages to reach a desired webpage.
Thus, it is desirable to have a method and system for providing an overview of the webpages in a website and related information about the website, which address the above and other disadvantages of the prior art.
Methods and systems consistent with the present invention display an overview of a first set of data that resides on a first server, where the first server includes a set of instructions and associated elements, for example multimedia elements, for displaying the first set of data on a display device. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a web browser retrieves the set of instructions from the first server such that the associated elements remain un-retrieved by the web browser, and identifies a first set of links that links the first set of data to one another. The web browser then displays an overview, which includes a representation of the first set of data, using, for example, icons.
Furthermore, the web browser identifies a second set of links that links one or more of the first set of data to a second set of data that resides on a second server, identifies electronic mail addresses that are included in the first set of data, and identifies the last modification dates associated with the first set of data. In addition, the web browser displays a listing of the first set of data organized according to the identified last modification dates, and a listing of the identified second set of links and the identified electronic mail addresses.
Methods and systems consistent with the present invention have several advantages over the prior art. For example, by providing an overview of webpages and related information residing on a website, such methods and systems can rapidly display the entire structure of the website. From a displayed overview, a user can directly bring up a desired webpage without first having to sequentially bring up several webpages in order to reach the desired webpage, and thus, facilitating website navigation. Furthermore, such methods and systems can display in a consistent and uniform manner the structure of websites and related information stored in the websites regardless of the specific design and structure of each website. In addition, such methods and systems can display, in compressed form, information retrieved from a website on Java enabled devices and hand-held or mobile devices, for example portable phones or other mobile communication devices, all of which typically have relatively small displays and cannot display information commonly viewed on larger displays, such as a computer terminal.
This summary and the following description of the invention should not restrict the scope of the claimed invention. Both provide examples and explanations to enable others to practice the invention. The accompanying drawings, which form part of the description of the invention, show several embodiments of the invention, and together with the description, explain the principles of the invention.